LITTLE RIVER STUDENTS ARRESTED
"...by the way we are going to rape your wife, but that should't bother you since you're an indian and you guys do that sort of thing all the time. we will probably do this on the way up to kansas city to do some heavy gambling and smoke some payoti. well i got to go make some clay pots now so i will see you on the reservation.
p.s. i love you and have a bag ready to put over your wifes head when i fuck the shit out of her"
-rape threat sent February 9, 1999 from Little River High School classrooms
RACE HATE, RAPE THREATS, DEATH THREATS; SENT FROM COMPUTERS IN LITTLE RIVER HIGH SCHOOL
EVEN AFTER BEING WARNED OF PROBLEMS SCHOOL OFFICIALS LET RAPE AND DEATH THREATS BE MADE
FROM INSIDE THEIR SCHOOL DURING CLASSES
Feb 9th
threatFeb17th
threat
April 25, 1999
Two High School Students from Little River, Kansas have been arrested for making criminal threats. Rice County attorney, Matt Treaster, announced his office will prosecute 17 year old Jason Myers who will face felony threat charges along with 16 year old Jason Cannon will be charged with disorderly conduct rising from extremely disturbing racial hate mail they are alleged to have sent to Native American activist Matthew Richter, in February of this year.
LITTLE RIVER HIGH SCHOOL- ADMINISTRATORS FAN THE FLAMES OF RACED HATE FOR ENTERTAINMENT
In a February 10th letter to the editor published by The McPherson Sentinel, Matthew Richter questioned nearby Little River High School's use of Native American religious symbols and their relentless embrace of the documented hate name, "redskin". He was immediately threatened by E-mail and again the following week. Prior to receiving threats to kill his pets, shoot into his home, rape his wife and kill him and his family, Richter had made repeated warnings to Superintendent Milt Dougherty, that serious problems exist in Little River Schools because of their racially hostile environment. Richter continually stressed the need for discussions between Little River educators and Native Americans.
MORE THAN TWO STUDENTS INVOLVED
Several students who have not been charged in any of the incidents, witnessed the threats. These student participants remained silent as Richter and his family were repeatedly threatened. No one spoke out until investigators arrived at the school several weeks later to question them on their involvement. Facing the specter of federal warrants for their arrest by the United States Department of Justice, and Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, students eventually responded to McPherson County Sheriff and Little River City Police investigators. One student confessed to sending racial hate threats and student witnesses report the other bragged about making threats to shoot up the Richter home, rape and kill. Lack of cooperation from the school's Internet service provider was cited by law enforcement as a major investigative delay requiring an inquisition be served Netspace Internet Service of Salina, by a McPherson County District Judge above and beyond the search warrants.Richter relates the early hours after receiving the first threats. "When I went to the authorities for protection, I walked past two "Chiefs" mascot license plates parked in front of the McPherson County Law Enforcement Center and knew I was going to have some problems with these officers understanding how serious a rape threat against a Native American's wife is. Local law enforcement said they didn't know what to do or if they would do anything. They said these rape threats could just be sent from California or anywhere into Little River modems. At that point we called the Department of Justice in Washington, along with television stations and newspapers who wanted to know how the McPherson area law enforcement handles a rape threat. Only then did things started to move here on the law enforcement end in McPherson County."
The two students who are accused of criminal acts, sent the threatening letters by E-mail from Little River's school computer network during class and right in front of supervising teachers. While sheriff's investigators worked on identifying the senders of the threats, Richter's family watched and waited anxiously to see who and how many would attack them. Richter later told Channel 12 television reporter Felicia Roth, "We didn't know exactly who was sending these rape threats. We could only prepare for the worst, to do less could be a tragic mistake. Two warrior societies contacted us with offers to send First Nations guards. They declared if law enforcement does not get this solved, we will protect our own."
"Little River High students are going to court on May 11th but at the time of the threats last February, we didn't know who was sending them. We believed the threats had come from adults because of the large volume of aggressive, intimidating and threatening mail and phone calls that poured out of the Little River community into our home. We prepared for the appearance of a group. Now they know its high school students and it's even more frightening. The high school killers in Litteton Colorado have proven kids are more dangerous than adults." -Matthew Richter
"What difference does it make except to the lawyers at the court house? My wife would be just as raped or my three year old just as shot if a juvenile did it or a 29 year old did it. This isn't some video game, violent threats from high school students aren't a joke."
"This is a time when people they don't like are killed by high school students. People in the community aren't going to stand for it. Its only school teachers who wait around for bodies to pile up before they do anything in their own schools. Native Americans know what receiving death threats is really about. How do you think they got so many Native Americans to shut up for so long about this hatred directed at them? When are educators going to wake up and teach the truth instead of hiding the facts of race hate against Native Americans from their students? Has anyone ever informed them of America's history of violence and why Native Americans find this term, redskin, so hateful? The reason we are not here in greater numbers is because our ancestors were murdered under that name."
TEACHING AN HONEST HISTORY OF THE TREATMENT OF NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILIES
TELL STUDENTS ABOUT GENOCIDE;Richter questioned why the Little River school system has done nothing to identify the 500 year history of the hate name "redskin" to students in the Little River School system. "Are they glorified baby sitters or educators who are supposed to teach the facts of history so hatred doesn't repeat itself?"
Richter declared this hate name used by Little River schools is what set up these threats against his family. "Administrators know they are teaching the use of a hate name. When did they ever explain the history of death and destruction behind this term to their students and why it is opposed by so many people? Now that it has been exposed that the school also gave them the tools to send the rape and death threats these educators are trying to sweep it all under the carpet. I repeatedly told them they had a problem months and months ago but the Superintendent created a battle ground, sacrificed my family and now points the finger of blame at students. It would have been real easy to sit down with us and talk it over but he refused and threw it out to the kids to play with. Is that what he gets paid to do?"
Previous to the threats, in December, Superintendent Dougherty rejected Richter's repeated pleas for open communication with the Little River Board of Education. He responded in writing, "As for refusing to arrange a meeting, I did so after hearing from you that the proposed meeting, which was to discuss the use of Redskin as our mascot, was going to take at least two hours."
Considerably more than two hours have now been spent by Dougherty, the Little River School Board and their attorneys with school administrators, teachers, students and parents. Many, many man hours have been spent at taxpayers expense by McPherson County Sheriff's investigators, The McPherson County Attorney's Office, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Attorney's Office in Wichita, Department of Justice Educational Litigation Section, Washington DC, Rice County Sheriff's investigators, Rice County Attorney's Office, Little River City Police Department, Officers of the Rice County Court, attorneys for the students, and community members who have worked to facilitate the process of seeking justice. The two hours Mr. Dougherty saved before, are to date, estimated to have cost taxpayers in the multiple thousands of dollars and the bill is rising as law enforcement continues to turn the wheels of justice.
Little River's educators have chosen to continue to entertain themselves with ethnic hatred. All of this because one bigot thought a minority's concern for the way their culture is being displayed by his school wasn't worth two hours of his time. It is a shame he thought so little of his students as well, for it is they who will pay the price. The refusal by Superintendent Dougherty to eliminate every possibility of ethnic ridicule and do away with a hateful school environment only served bigoted personal agendas over the welfare of his students.
ASK THE EDUCATORS:
WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO CHILDREN?
"The PIONEER has before declared that our only safety depends upon the
total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had
better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and
wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In
this lies safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent
commands. Otherwise, we may expect
future years to be as full of trouble
with the redskins as those have been in the past."An editorial of January 3, 1891 (only a week after the Wounded Knee Massacre) "The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer" printed an editorial by it's publisher, L. Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz)
Important questions must be asked of educators at little River. Did you tell students why this term is so upsetting to Native Americans? Did educators ever explain how racism starts, grows and takes it victims? Have they ever explained that hatred and racism is the product of ignorance? Did they explain that not teaching the truth of Native American humanity, the historical facts and failing to enforce the fundamental right of any minority to have dignity for their history, culture, ancestry is hateful and damaging? Did educators explain how Little River students who travel to a reservation and use the term, "redskin" to identify Native Americans could spark a violent confrontation? Do Little River educators prepare students for the outside world where they will live and work with many diverse people who do not condone racism, hate names and do not welcome those who entertain themselves with them? Have educators made clear why so many do object to the use of this historical hate name and the disruptive and possibly violent conflicts that will accompany those who use this hate name in other educational settings and work places?
LITTLE RIVER SCHOOL WEB SITE IMAGE, JAN. 1999
KANSAS SCHOOLS
REJECT WARNING SIGNS OF VIOLENCE:
WICHITA NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
Little River Schools are not the only Kansas educational systems ignoring the warning signs of race hate, criminal behavior and the threats of violence. Native American activist, Clem Iron Wing, whose son has been repeatedly told by fellow North High School students to be a "redskin" or get out of North High School has done just that. Clem Iron Wing's son has been shuffled around the Wichita school system by educators in an effort to hide the hate behind the "redskin" issue and the warning signs of violence in their school district. After sending his son to another high school, Iron Wing had to move his son again, to a third school. Aa fight erupted when a student ridiculed Iron Wing's son's Native American Sioux name. Both students were suspended in that incident. There are warning signs that more violent confrontations are in the making because Wichita like all Kansas schools wait for victims before stopping the hatred directed at Native Americans.A Wichita North High student wrote to Mr. Iron Wing,
"My school mascot (redskins) was almost changed this year, and I'm sick of people crying for a cause just to get their faces on the news. And another thing... Leave North High alone. No one at North killed a damn Indian... you know you're all full of crap. We go to school, we learn, we are happy. Leave us alone. If you don't like our mascot, then don't send your kids there." Ginny Ray, August 1997 North High students pick out those Native Americans who won't become mascots and object to this term of hatred then target them ...
"No one (that I am aware of) from North high is offended- if there is someone- I hope that he or she speaks up. If you don't like the Mascot- its simple- Don't go here-" Mark Jones, Wichita North High student, August, 1997 These letters promise more confrontations will occur and there will be violence. Perhaps it will be an ignorant and hateful white child or it may be a Native American child protecting his dignity, his ancestry and his heritage. The warning signs are clearly there."
Wichita North High School, with its redskins mascot, is the most violent school in the #259 metropolotan Wichita district. Clem Iron Wing's concern that his son will be shot there by an angry student is well founded. In January of this year a .32 calibre hand gun was taken away from a North High Student inside the school building. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident and the student was suspended. Chunk Stevenson, the full time security guard who works at North High told Wichita Eagle reporter Roy Wenzel, "Who knows what could have happened." Recently, North High students commenting on the killers at Columbine High School characterized them as outcasts and said, "We have a lot of outcast kids here at North High School, everyone nodded in agreement. A girl added, "Death is part of life." and added "If it happens to me, if I get shot, it's just my time to get shot."
Not satisfied with the prospect of violent death for his child or any child in public school Clem Iron Wing said, " When violence erupts communities ask why did it happen but do they demand it never be given a place to grow?"
LITTLE RIVER SUPERINTENDENT QUESTIONED
Clem Iron Wing spoke out about Little River Superintendent Dougherty's refusal to call for meetings regarding the term "redskin": "Maybe what we should have done as minorities who understand how the system works and offered to pay this man in charge of Little River's schools for those two hours of his time. Apparently he doesn't think these children are worthy of two hours of his time. He may have saved you two hours of your taxpayer's money last December, but how much is he costing you now?"
Iron Wing continued, "The educational system in America has become nothing more than a modernized daycare facility. You will no longer find the educators of old who teach children how to relate to a world into which they will emerge from their care. They don't educate with unbiased information but "uneducate" with bigoted concepts. Instead the glorified baby sitter has forgotten the educator's tools which create a better society. The proof they are glorified baby sitters is that no educator in any Kansas school will confront those who oppose their bigoted view of Native Americans shown by the mascots. They will use children to confront the opposition."
" Our challenge is still open to the superintendent in Little River to spend the two hours in an education session with us on what racism is all about or he can keep his bigoted head in the sand and sacrifice some more children. The plain and simple truth is this; who cares more for your children the Native American activist or your so called educational system? The Native American activist uses factual information, the educator uses bigotry to endanger your child."
"The challenge is open to Little River and North High Schools to post in their hallways, how the word redskin came into existence and how the word was used hatefully for 500 years against the Native American. But, like any child molester they will lie to the children, who are their ultimate victims, so they can have their fun. Then they turn around and blame those children when they get caught in the lies. It always the child who has been preyed upon by an adult who pays the price in the end."
Iron Wing continued, "There will be more victims, there will be more threats, there will be more violence. It may be from white kids or from Native kids defending their families but the school's educators are building a battle ground. It may be from black kids when they realize these hate letters to Native Americans are bringing the word "nigger" back into fashion again."
"Educators have never addressed the history of this hate name, they have never explained why the thousands who object to it are not entitled to dignity for their dead or the right to be free of the hate name they died under. School systems have only written lie upon lie which keeps race hate alive by reinforcing ignorance."
"The Department of Justice recently confronted the Bucombe, North Carolina school system for its "squaw" name. However little was changed because the DOJ is only set up to come into local schools when there is a victim or a body count. Local school systems ignore their warnings and keep the DOJ out before then. Violence and death in schools is a reality of the 1990's. While your child's body lies in the morgue, they will send counselors to give you a basket of fruit, a hug, a promise to find out who did it and then file charges, but then it's too late."
"It's the school system who is paid to stop racial hate and violence with educational tools. They are the smart ones who are supposed to teach the ignorant by using the facts. That is the job of education. But, where are they when the warning signs are beating them over the head? They are simply behaving as glorified baby sitters. They are writing evacuation plans, hiring more armed guards and ignoring the warning signs anyway. But look at the cost, who will pay the price for school violence? I guarantee it will be the children, not the educators."
HIGH SCHOOL VIOLENCE
WARNING SIGNS IGNORED BY EDUCATORS
LITTLETON, COLORADO, LITTLE RIVER, KANSAS: HATRED AND VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS
The death of 15 at Colorado's Columbine High School after obvious signs that educators knew about and failed to defuse the hostile and threatening environment in place in their school, has brought many persons to question why school authorities are allowed to blame students for criminal actions they are paid as administrators, counselors and teachers to identify, counter and eliminate.The killing in Littleton, Colorado's, Columbine High School has put all school educators on the hot seat. School officials everywhere are scrambling to calm the public by showing plans to transport the injured, help swat teams enter their schools and locate hidden bombs when killers suddenly rise from their student populations. These plans focus on transporting your child's body to the appropriate institution after an assault. However, parents are not satisfied with this response.
They want educators to recognize warning signs before they come to violent ends. They demand educators do the job they are paid to do, identify their own roles in the root causes of isolation, stereotyping, segregation and race hatred inside their schools instead of waiting until there are bodies. Racism, hate, intolerance and bigotry are brewing into threats, armed conflict, criminal activity and violence in the nation's schools. Students are 100% guaranteed to be threatened and intimidated in their schools. Educators continue to deny responsibility through a long established system of minimizing, suppressing and misrepresenting these incidents. Simply juggling statistics can assure they do not come to the public's attention. To cite an example, Wichita Public Schools has changed its methods of reporting violent incidents in four years of the last six so no two years can be compared to each other.
There have been highly publicized mass high school killings recently at Littleton, Paduca, and Jonesboro. It is barely ten years since a student went on a killing spree at Goddard Kansas High school. There are lesser individual crimes of violence and countless criminal threats which mark public schools as the place where violence and its warning signs are in abundance. With dead children in Littleton Colorado schools, race hate and rape threats in Little River Kansas schools, and threats at an all time high in Wichita schools, parents demand educators answer why they are ignoring the warning signs that students are making threats and committing violent crimes at their schools? Parents and community members are demanding to know why professional educators and counselors, supported by public tax dollars, deny they have to get real working solutions in place that address the roots of the problems before there are bodies of innocent victims piled in their local morgues.
LITTLE RIVER, KANSAS: DO YOU PAY EDUCATORS TO TEACH CHILDREN THE FACTS OR TEACH A BIGOTED ATTITUDE?
If Little River Superintendent Dougherty had used his background as an educator he would have taken the well known evidence and history of the word "redskin" and taught the facts to students instead of teaching the bigoted lies which have stood far too long already. The term redskin has 500 years of hatred behind it. This history is briefly touched on through quotations in American Comments magazine, REDSKIN: A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME. for the average person to view.It is evidence and historical fact which are the tools of an educator. Professional educators have the benefit of the largest and most advanced information and retrieval systems ever devised in the history of mankind. They are the ones with the doctoral degrees, educated at Universities, trained in psychology on how to work with and teach children. Kansas alone has spent millions of dollars to build and staff universities with up to the minute technology and training for educators who now work in public schools. However do they teach the plain and simple facts? If they did "redskin" would not be on the lips of any child in a public school.
Recently the State of Utah, auto licensing authority and the US Patent Office have both declared the term "redskin" to be racist denying all protections for its use. Some communities recruit with bigotry pasted along United States Highways. (sign outside Little River, US 56 Hwy)
These agencies have said, if you use this racist name, it is just like the "n" word and it is at your own risk and liability, we do not protect it under government laws. It is the educators who are paid to teach the facts such as these and the famous quotations that can be viewed in REDSKIN:A 500 YEAR HATE CRIME. They are responsible for presenting facts of history to bring the ignorant into the light of understanding and knowledge. But that is where Little River has failed with tragic results. Now a family is victimized and two students will carry criminal records because educators chose bigotry over education.
These students were trained to use a known hate name by educators hiding the facts of this word from them. If these students knew the history of this word, would they actually have ever have wanted to use it at all? The answer is no. They should never have been put in that position by their teachers who refused to behave as responsible adults and teach them the facts. Now it is the adult educators who blame children for their mistakes. As a direct consequence of Little River educators failing to do their jobs, there are two students charged with criminal offenses. Criminal records are tracked by law enforcement and employers to weed out potential trouble before it starts. These criminal records will follow these students through the rest of their lives.
These hate crimes are real and really wrong, but the blame does not lie only on the shoulders of these children, it is shared by their school. There are now also two student victims who have been sacrificed by the Little River schools. No teachers or administrators will have to make court appearances, pay attorney fees, pay fines, pay restitution, spend time in security lockups, or do community service, pay court costs, make visits to counselors, social workers and court probation officers. No educator will carry the shame of victimizing others or of being singled out as a criminal in their community, nor will they feel the stab of anxiety realizing they are of the non-preferred caste when ever a job application asks, "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?". It is these children, not the school educators, who will carry the social stigma of being a person who committed a race hate crime while the school officials who put them up to it will walk away, point the finger of blame at them and teach yet another generation of children that race hatred is an entertainment event.
